The density-matrix renormalization group: a short introduction

The density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method has established itself over the last decade as the leading method for the simulation of the statics and dynamics of one-dimensional strongly correlated quantum lattice systems. The DMRG is a method that shares features of a renormalization group procedure (which here generates a flow in the space of reduced density operators) and of a variational method that operates on a highly interesting class of quantum states, so-called matrix product states (MPSs). The DMRG method is presented here entirely in the MPS language. While the DMRG generally fails in larger two-dimensional systems, the MPS picture suggests a straightforward generalization to higher dimensions in the framework of tensor network states. The resulting algorithms, however, suffer from difficulties absent in one dimension, apart from a much more unfavourable efficiency, such that their ultimate success remains far from clear at the moment.